A Durham architect was selected today to help design the new Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall.

Philip Freelon and his Freelon Group, along with a team of colleagues, were among six finalists in a competition to design the new Smithsonian museum, which is expected to be one of the most important architectural works in recent years, Barb Barrett reports.

The museum, expected to open in 2015, will include experiences central to the history and culture of North Carolina, a former slave state and the site of such historic civil rights events as the Greensboro sit-in.

Freelon envisions a stone building crowned in shimmering copper, evoking the ancient art of West Africa, the American struggle for equality and the joy of the African-American communal experience.

Freelon , whose firm formed a team with three other companies, said in an interview last month that the group wanted a museum that was "both dignified and exuberant."

"We tried to let the site tell us what it wants to be," Freelon said at the time. "We know we want this building to be more than a vessel that holds exhibits, not just a beautiful building but one that is part of the themes of what the museum will be."

A group of Raleigh sixth-graders are making the inauguration a field trip.

Students at Endeavor Charter School in North Raleigh often take field trips that connect directly to the lessons they're getting in class. So their teachers jumped at an offer from the Smithsonian Institute to attend Barack Obama's inauguration in Washington, D.C.

Twenty kids, three teachers and 12 other adults came up with the more than $600 cost of tickets.

"Some kids did odd jobs. Some begged grandma and grandpa. Some went to their churches. Things like that," said math and science teacher Erica Schnars, who will be on the trip.

The trip came with admission to all of the major Smithsonian museums in D.C. Some well-connected parents managed to snag tickets for the entire group to attend the inauguration as well. 

"We talked about voting, elections, presidents. How you vote, why you vote, all that stuff," Schnars said. "But now they get to see it for themselves."

The students will be up there from Sunday to Wednesday of inauguration week.